quote ------------

Wulf wrote:
"Well, I'm not a professional nor am I a calist."

Me:
Not sure what a "calist" is. Perhaps it is an arrow aimed at my direction? Am I a "victim" of Wulf's "anger?"

/quote -----------

Upps, sorry, I wanted to write cladist


quote ------------

Wulf:
Well, if one would fly alone, nobody else would accept any proposals so why do the work then?

Me:
Good scientists, like eagles, fly alone. But that does not mean that good scientists disagree. In fact, when two scientists who think independently but they converge on the same conclusion (as did Darwin and Wallace on evolution), ...

/quote ------------

Well, if more than two independently thinking scientists "converge on the same conclusion" (as you obviously also converge on Darwin's and Wallace's conclusions) you will soon have a quite large group of scientists that agree to the same things. That's what conventions are made of, aren't they?
And that's what methods and models are made of, also.

quote -------------

...that can only mean that it is more likely to be the correct answer ...

/quote ------------

So, aren't cladists a group of independently thinking people (they all have their own mind, and are thinking their thoughts)? This would actually mean they are close to the right answer, too? If so, the eagles will become a bunch of starlings anyway.
Something like: "People eat sh*t, millions of flies can't be wrong!"

quote -------------
...than if one scientist simply blindly accepts the conclusion of another. No matter how many cladists blindly follow Hennig's principle of holophyly, it does not make Hennig's (and his followers') disqualification of paraphyletic taxa any more scientifically tenable.
/quote -------------

As I said already, I haven't read enough about cladistic to argue with you on Henning. I am actually awaiting Mayr & Ashlock and Henning from my order two month ago...

Cheers,
Wulf
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